Jiu Keishicho Tokushuhan Sousagakari - Episode 1

I'll be honest, i only started watching this drama because Infinite's L was in it. So, i was in for a thorough disappointment as we only get to see L give mean looks for like a total of 20 seconds or something in the whole episode.

So, At the beginning of the episode, there's this lady running with a black bag who as we see a few seconds later is being chased by a policeman (i say policeman because he had a earpiece but didn't wear bodygard standard black shades) Azuma as we are told by the voice speaking into his earpiece. Clippetty-cloppetty go the heels and she runs to a bridge with our policeman watching from below. He speaks to his superiors and informs he has the lady in sight. She receives a phone call and suddenly falls down blocked from Azuma's view. (Anyone else suspicious?) She then gets back up still catching the black bag back into his view. What she also has is a plastic bag with a mysterious red liquid and a solid object. I think somebody got one of their digits cut off yakuza style. She holds both the bag and red liquid filled plastic bag close to her chest and runs away with all her might. Azuma standing below runs to follow her, not before noticing a blonde haired dude in white whose appearance screams look at me look at him for sometime in which two whole trucks pass before he mysteriously vanishes out of sight. Azuma then  tries to reason with her, telling her that giving the ransom doesn't necessarily guarantee her son's safety. She holds up the plastic and says its her boy's little finger. Azuma checks the black bag only to find it full of magazines. 

We are shown later that the lady switched the bags and run as per the kidnapper's instructions. Genius. Not. And so he is riddled with guilt and the little finger in the plastic bag haunts him all the way back to work with a cute assistant. Then we see Misaki an uber cute police woman in SIT breaking her head over a problem which her senior pointedly tells her is simple. Its obvious she is the girl everyone loves and dotes on because she is oh so cute and innocent. Her partner on the other hand is Izaki (anyone else notice how their names rhyme) and she is the polar opposite. She is the toughened girl who can beat her male colleagues at the dojo even when they try to cheat and is unnecessarily rude and is absolutely unpleasant. The dark past is strong in this one. 

The male colleague she just beat can't take the fact that he just lost to a girl and comes to challenge her in office and she does nothing other than shoot hateful looks. Misaki prepares tea for everyone. We know this because she calls out the name of each person before pouring tea into their cups which are all different. Is that normal in an office? And as the squabbling progresses, Misaki comes into the room and announces tea. The officers talk about how she speaks up in the right place at the right time and begin listing her successful negotiations in hostage situations. Izaki doesn't hide how she dislikes this. The other employees say her voice is so pitiful that woe is the villain put up against her. The senior most officer says she should be nominated for a grand prize in the Cannes film festival. The other colleagues correct him and say it is the Palme d'or and that is her new nickname. She mumbles on about how that is Izaki's nickname, though she doesn't tell us why. Izaki scowls at her when she gives her the tea. 

Izaki and Mizaki are obviously awkward with each other but Misaki admires Izaki. She says that to Izaki who says she has never been in any real danger till now and says her very voice is irritating. Izaki then rides off on her motorcycle. Her helmet shade was transparent till she took off after which it was tinted. Small, rather insignificant observation. She works out her frustration at....... at the gym where we see a muscular man wearing a cross pendant stalking her as she sweats away. His pectoral muscles contract in excitement? 

We then see her walk into a blue lit room only to walk into a second dimly lit red room and down the spiral stairs she goes. She bickers with the bartender till he reveals the location of guns MP5 or something. I was wondering if it really was that easy when the bartender guy pulls a gun and several men out and attacks her. Given her cliché character, i'm not surprised she beat all of them single handedly and even said she'll be back to play later when she is bored. On her way out, Mr. Cross pendant asks her if there is a shop nearby. she tells him she doesn't work there and walks out, but does sneak a peak at his face. Misaki has dinner with her parents who ask her to get married soon. Mom tells her to stop some expensive car from speeding so that the rich guy in the car can fall in love with her. Lol.
Azuma is getting yelled at by his boss who refuses to listen to his explanation regarding the failure of the last case. On his way out, he runs into Misaki who recalls him from joint meetings their departments had. Misaki wants to make small talk, but he barely registers her and tell her to convey his regards to the cheif. Misaki worries to her other female co worker about how worried Azuma looked. She says that Azuma has been divorced and has a kid and feels personal responsibility in cases like this. Misaki says he seemed worried about something else (like she knows him) and the co-worker began teasing her making her uncomfortable. Izaki drops her cup, shattering it and promptly bringing about silence. She apologises and says her cup fell because it was too noisy. Ha. She begins cleaning up immediately and Misaki helps her out. She says no thank you in her usual gruff manner and heads out.
An announcement through the building says that there is an emergency and everyone heads out to the spot where there is a hostage situation and the hostage's house has been barricaded by the bad guy. Everyone strategises in a dimly lit room and divide into teams and head out. Izaki has been paired with the guy she beat and had a tiff with earlier. Not good. Any attempts to reach out to those inside go waste and the police HQ decide to call the landline. The lady picks up and tells them that she is hurt and the bad guy was nearby. A second call connects them to the kidnapper who orders immediate evacuation of the surrounding police and chinese food to be brought in by a female. So random.
Azuma watches this on the news. The anchor woman tells the viewers that many people have gathered and shows blondie who still wears white standing out from the crowd among the crowd, but just for a second, Azuma missed this because he was making coffee. Dayum! The team decide to send Misaki in with food and tell her to keep the kidnapper busy for as long as possible. Azuma is informed by his cute co-worker that blondie is in the crowd glaring at him. Blondie disappears once he turns his head away though. Azuma grabs his coat and runs.
Misaki goes to the bathroom and calls her mom who talks about some relative visiting and she ends the call abruptly, tears welling in her eyes. She is not coming back, is she? She has to carry the tray all the way from the HQ till the site. As she passes, she looks at Izaki who sneers and looks away. Misaki further steels herself and walks into the room, not hearing the be sure to get the guy Izaki mumbles. Now why couldn't she say that to her when she was making eye contact?
Misaki enters the place where the smart kidnapper has tied up the hostage and turned the tv up with opera like music playing so that the officers don't hear anything at the HQ. He grabs her from behind and asks her to take off her clothes. Pervy kidnapper alert! Blondie is still watching from afar.

So, at the end of the episode,we get a gist of what stereotype each character represents. Anyone reading manga will know what i'm talking about. Nothing interesting as such and the plot has too many holes. They could have tried brushing for prints off the bag. To find two old used bags like that might have been hard, i'm guessing both of them are brand new. Considering how there were manga in the bag that could also contain prints, i'm thinking their forensic division needs some tweaking. The criminal in light so far doesn't look very smart. The blondie (L) i'm thinking is a ghost? with his white clothes and blonde hair. If he wanted to watch the scene with the crowd, wouldn't the criminal make himself less conspicuous? He can be spotted from a spaceship. And another teeny problem i had was with the kid's little finger. It looked the size of an adult's ring finger to me. Not too huge, but still irked me nevertheless. The direction could be upped a few notches and the lighting, Gawd! Do they need better lighting or what?! Every scene has odd lighting and odd filters on the camera. Lets hope for the better in later episodes.!
Too lazy to watch it again to screencap it.